A work which has nothing in common with these fervent love letters except an enigmatic origin is the _Arte de Furtar_, which in part at least probably belongs to the seventeenth century. It is a curious and amusing treatise on the noble art of thieving in all kinds, private and official, civil and military. Its anecdotes are racy if not original. Two of the happiest incidents (in caps. 6 and 41) are copied without acknowledgement from _Lazarillo de Tormes_.[620] The author seems to have had misgivings that he had presented his subject in too favourable a light, for he ends by assuring his reader thieves that many tons of worldly glory are not worth an ounce of eternal blessedness, and promises them before long another ‘more liberal treatise on the art of acquiring true glory’. These tardy qualms did not save his book from the Index. The first edition, purporting to be printed at Amsterdam, bears the date 1652[621] and attributes the work to Antonio Vieira. That attribution may be set aside. Were there no other reasons for its rejection it would suffice to read the book or even its title in order to be convinced that it is not from the _veneravel penna_ of that great statesman and preacher. He might dabble in Bandarra prophecies, but would scarcely have sunk to the picaresque familiarities of the _Arte de Furtar_ or occupy himself with the sad habits of innkeepers, the long stitches of tailors, or the price of straw. It has also been attributed, without adequate ground, to Thomé Pinheiro da Veiga (1570?-1656), the author of a lively account of the festivities at the Spanish Court and description of Valladolid in 1605, entitled _Fastigimia_ (it mentions Don Quixote and Sancho (p. 119) but says nothing of Cervantes), and to João Pinto Ribeiro (_c._ 1590-1649), the magistrate who played a notable part in the Restoration of 1640 and wrote various short treatises such as _Preferencia das Letras ás Armas_ (1645); and even less plausibly to DUARTE RIBEIRO DE MACEDO (1618?-80), statesman and diplomatist, an indifferent poet but an excellent writer of prose and a careful although not original historian. His halting verses and his treatises were collected in his _Obras_ (2 vols., 1743). Of the latter the _Summa Politica_ has been shown by Snr. Solidonio Leite[622] to be copied almost word for word from the work of identical title by D. SEBASTIÃO CESAR DE MENESES (†1672), Bishop of Oporto and Archbishop of Braga. Both author and book were too well known for Ribeiro de Macedo to claim it as his own. He seems merely to have translated it from the original Latin published at Amsterdam in 1650, a year after the first Portuguese edition. The work is remarkable for acute thought and clear and concise expression. A work of a similar character is the well-written _Arte de Reinar_ (1643) by P. ANTONIO CARVALHO DE PARADA (1595-1655). The _Tratado Analytico_ (1715), by MANUEL RODRIGUEZ LEITÃO (_c._ 1620-91), a controversial